Hicham Berrada

Hicham Berrada’s work is the product of a dual artistic/scientific line of enquiry. Working like a painter, he sets up scientific protocols whose imitation of natural processes and atmospheric conditions generates chimerical worlds full of fascinating colours and shapes.

A resident at the French Academy in Rome/Villa Médicis in 2014, Berrada has recently shown at the Palais de Tokyo and the Carrousel du Louvre (Paris), the Abderrahman Slaoui Foundation (Casablanca) and PS1 (New York).

Works

La vie moderne

Mesk-ellil,

In the blue-tinged twilight of a flower garden he created in the gallery, Hicham Berrada has planted night-blooming jasmine – mesk-ellil (“musk of the night”) in Arabic; in Latin, cestrum nocturnum –, a shrub with flowers that open at night, releasing a powerful, sweet perfume. This installation inverts the plant’s day/night cycle so that visitors can experience the olfactory delights of a garden at night during the Biennale’s opening hours. During the night (the real night), when the Biennale is closed, a horticultural lighting system keeps the plants in bloom and provides them with the necessary “daylight”.